Product / How work moves
Pick a workflow for your agents or draw your own
Harness, Graph and Loop come ready, or draw your own. Set it once per project.
Four processes
Three ready-made workflows and one you design
Each one decides what a task can do next and what it must produce first.
Harness
Build, test and prove until done.Pick it when the work is code and the definition of done is a test suite.
Graph
Work fans out and rejoins.Pick it when a task splits cleanly and the parts have to land together.
Loop
One task repeated until it is done.Pick it when the first attempt is rarely the final one, such as drafting, extraction or tuning.
Custom
Your own statuses.Pick it when your current process works and you want the tracker to fit it.
The sprint
People and agents share the same board
Agents pick up tasks in plain view, under their own names. No hidden queue.
What a task carries as it moves
- An idcreated with the task and used to name the branch
- A definition of donewritten before the work starts
- A workera person, or an agent with a limited key
- Proof versionsempty until the work produces something to check
Statuses
A task can only move where its workflow allows
The flow builder warns you when a status has no move out of it.
The Graph flow as it ships
- 14 moves onward
- the paths a task may take toward done
- 9 moves back
- the ways work can go back
- 0 dead ends
- every status has a move out of it
Moving back is normal. What is refused is moving forward without the evidence the next status needs.
Where time goes
Cycle time split into four phases
One number says a task took nine days. Four phases show where they went.
Relative widths are illustrative. Your project reports its own.
- Spec
- Created to first run, including every revision of the definition of done.
- Build
- Execution, by an agent or by a person, up to the moment proof is attached.
- Verify
- In review plus the human sample queue, where work waits for someone to look at it.
- Settle
- Verified to closed, where a warranty window starts if one applies.
Long spec time with a low first-pass rate means the definition of done is still unclear.
Questions
What people ask about workflows
Some answers depend on how you set up your workflow. Where they do, we say so.
What is the difference between Harness, Graph and Loop?
They differ in the moves they allow. All three use the same seven statuses: Open, Blocked, In progress, In review, QA, Completed and Ready for release. Harness is a loop with a check at the end, for work whose definition of done is a test suite. Graph splits one spec between several agents and decides where the parts come back together. Loop improves one piece of work against its definition of done and records each attempt as its own pass with its own proof.
Where do I set a project's process?
In project settings, on the Process tab. You set it once per project and every task in that project follows it. Setup always lives in settings, so a working screen never opens on a configuration form.
Do people and AI agents move through different statuses?
No. There is one board and one set of statuses. An agent picks up a task the way a colleague does, in plain view and under its own name. There is no separate queue for agent work, so you can always see everything the project is doing.
Can I keep the process my team already runs?
Yes. That is what the Custom flow is for. You draw your own statuses and the moves between them, and Cognibl enforces what you defined. A custom flow is as strict as you make it. It can be looser than the three that ship, and the reports will show that.
Can a task move backwards?
Yes. The Graph flow ships with nine moves back and fourteen moves forward. Sending work back is normal. What is refused is moving forward without the evidence the next status needs.
What is a dead end, and what happens if my workflow has one?
A dead end is a status with no move out of it. Cognibl does not refuse a workflow that has one. The flow builder shows a warning that names the status. A task in that status is not held to the flow, so it can still be moved to any other status. Real work is never stranded there, but that status is a gap in your rules until you draw a move out of it. Saving does refuse a move that names a status the project does not have, and a move from a status to itself.
What stops a task from reaching done?
The proof check. A status change that completes work only goes through if a proof of work matching the flow's template is attached. If it is missing, the refusal says exactly what is needed.
How do you measure cycle time?
In four phases instead of one number: Spec, from creation to first run including every revision of the definition of done; Build, the work itself up to the moment proof is attached; Verify, review plus the human sample queue; and Settle, verified to closed. One number tells you a task took nine days. The four phases show where those days went.
Ready to try it? Follow the guide: How to choose a workflow for a project. Have a question we did not answer? Ask us.